Teacher who exposed head’s bonuses set to return to work

A whistleblower teacher who faced the sack after exposing a state school head's allegedly unlawful bonuses of £200,000 is expected to be allowed back to work.

Sir Alan Davies, head of Copland Community College in Wembley, was suspended yesterday while auditors investigate claims that senior staff received almost £1 million in "unlawful" bonus payments over seven years at the school.

Copland's former head of geography Hank Roberts sought protection as a whistleblower when he spoke out about the payments but Sir Alan suspended him over an unrelated matter last month.

Mr Roberts believes his suspension – and that of two other teacher union representatives at the school – was based on a "trumped up" charge and designed to gag him.

He had been accused of electronically appending, without permission, a junior union representative's signature to a letter objecting to Sir Alan's plans to turn Copland into a privately-backed trust school.

The school's new acting headteacher Philip O'Hear is due to meet with Mr Roberts and his two suspended colleagues today in an attempt to resolve the situation.

Mr O'Hear, currently head of nearby Capital City Academy, said: "I have made it clear that one of the first things I would do is review their case. I have started that process and have a meeting with the individuals and their unions today.

"My sole priority is to get that school functioning cohesively and well in the interests of the children."

Mr Roberts said it was clear to everyone at the school the suspension of the three teachers was a direct result of his decision to expose the bonus payments.

"The whistleblowing has been proved to be absolutely correct and therefore the trumped up suspensions should have been ended straight away," he said. "I am confident they now will be."

The two other teachers all supported Mr Roberts's campaign to expose the bonus culture at the school.

Shane Johnschwager, a history teacher, said: "I did not become a teacher to get rich. I chose a career which is a public service and anyone who is in education for personal enrichment has utterly missed the point.

"I fully expect to be reinstated and all charges dropped," he said.

Dave Kubenk, a science teacher at Copland, said he believed the three would have been sacked had Sir Alan remained in charge for much longer.

Sir Alan and his chair of governors have robustly defended the bonus payments and insisted that he was "worth every penny". The school has confirmed that Sir Alan received £130,000 in bonuses over the last two years alone. Separate documents seen by the Standard suggest he received at least another £65,000 in previous years.

Yesterday Brent Council suspended Sir Alan, deputy head Dr Richard Evans and bursar Columbus Udokoro, and stripped the governors of their powers over the school's budget.

The action came after Mr Roberts sent a dossier of evidence to the Audit Commission and Schools Secretary Ed Balls.